Development Trends of Blood Purification-related Adsorbents: From Novel Adsorbents to Functional Porous Materials

Adsorbents are the key components for removing toxic and pathogenic substances in blood purification systems. A good adsorbent is expected to have the properties of high toxin removal efficiency, high selectivity, and reliable biocompatibility. Although conventional materials, such as active carbon, polysaccharides, and resins, have been widely used as adsorbents, their blood purification performances are still limited owing to the small surface area and poor biocompatibility. Nanomaterial-based adsorbents have attracted great attention owing to their unique physicochemical properties, high porosity, and low toxicity. Diverse kinds of nanomaterial-based adsorbents have been used for blood purification, such as carbon nanotubes, graphene, carbon nanofibers, metal–organic frameworks (MOFs), covalent–organic frameworks (COFs), microporous and mesoporous polymers, MXenes, and transition metal chalcogenides/dichalcogenides. These developed nanomaterial-based adsorbents possess extraordinary physicochemical properties, such as adjustable active sites, multifunctional groups, and large specific surface areas, which offer great opportunities for fabricating more advanced nanoadsorbents for hemodialysis and hemoperfusion. This chapter provides a comprehensive discussion on the structural engineering and performance optimization of these 2D nanomaterial-based adsorbents and offers new insights into the design of nanomaterials for blood purification systems.